The hidden message in Walt Disney's princess fairy tales
Walt Disney takes a lot of heat for the message that it delivers about women in its princess movies, but there is one message that people have been missing in those movies. Teamwork is better than competition.
The story of Snow White is brought about because her stepmother, known as the Evil Queen, is jealous of Snow White’s beauty. The Queen orders Snow White’s death, but the Huntsman is unable to comply and sends Snow White into the woods. When Snow White arrives at the Dwarves cottage, she works with the animals to clean it – a job that would have been too much for her to do by herself in one day.
The Queen turns herself into an ugly hag, the very thing that she was trying to avoid, and gives Snow White a poison apple. When the dwarfs find out, they band together to chase the queen, who ends up killing herself by accident.
In Cinderella, it is the wicked stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and her stepdaughters who keep Cinderella from going to the ball. The mice work together to make Cinderella a dress. The stepfamily tears it apart. The Fairy Godmother works with the animals to give Cinderella everything she needs for the ball, almost forgetting the dress until Cinderella points it out. If Lady Tremaine and her daughters had worked with Cinderella, they probably would have ended up living in the castle with Cinderella.
In Sleeping Beauty, Aurora isn’t discovered until the three fairies stop working together. When they get into a fight about what color the dress should be, magic flies out of the chimney and alerts Maleficent’s raven Diablo to their presence.
Animation is a collaborative process, and in the days of Walt Disney, it was especially so. It isn’t a stretch to say that Walt wrote the story he knew, and that story was one of how working together results in better entertainment than working alone does. The viewer always brings something to the art as the reader brings to the poem. Maybe Americans have just brought the wrong thing to these Disney fairy tales.
The story of Snow White is brought about because her stepmother, known as the Evil Queen, is jealous of Snow White’s beauty. The Queen orders Snow White’s death, but the Huntsman is unable to comply and sends Snow White into the woods. When Snow White arrives at the Dwarves cottage, she works with the animals to clean it – a job that would have been too much for her to do by herself in one day.
The Queen turns herself into an ugly hag, the very thing that she was trying to avoid, and gives Snow White a poison apple. When the dwarfs find out, they band together to chase the queen, who ends up killing herself by accident.
In Cinderella, it is the wicked stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and her stepdaughters who keep Cinderella from going to the ball. The mice work together to make Cinderella a dress. The stepfamily tears it apart. The Fairy Godmother works with the animals to give Cinderella everything she needs for the ball, almost forgetting the dress until Cinderella points it out. If Lady Tremaine and her daughters had worked with Cinderella, they probably would have ended up living in the castle with Cinderella.
In Sleeping Beauty, Aurora isn’t discovered until the three fairies stop working together. When they get into a fight about what color the dress should be, magic flies out of the chimney and alerts Maleficent’s raven Diablo to their presence.
Animation is a collaborative process, and in the days of Walt Disney, it was especially so. It isn’t a stretch to say that Walt wrote the story he knew, and that story was one of how working together results in better entertainment than working alone does. The viewer always brings something to the art as the reader brings to the poem. Maybe Americans have just brought the wrong thing to these Disney fairy tales.